Having declined to third party status after the rise of the Labour Party from 1918 and especially during the 1920s, the Liberals were challenged for this position in the 1980s when a group of Labour MPs broke away and established the Social Democratic Party (SDP).[25] The SDP and the Liberals realised that there was no space for two political parties of the centre and entered into the SDP–Liberal Alliance so that they would not stand against each other in elections. The Alliance was led by David Steel (Liberal) and Roy Jenkins (SDP); Jenkins was replaced by David Owen.[25] The two parties had their own policies and emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 general elections.

Following disappointing results in the 1987 election, Steel proposed to merge the two parties. Although opposed by Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of both parties, and they formally merged in March 1988, with Steel and Robert Maclennan (who had become SDP leader in August 1987) as joint interim leaders. The new party was initially named Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD) with the unofficial short form The Democrats being used from September 1988.[26] The name was subsequently changed to Liberal Democrats in October 1989, which is frequently shortened to Lib Dems.[25] The new party logo, the Bird of Liberty, was adopted in 1989.

The minority of the SDP who rejected the merger remained under Owen's leadership in a rump SDP; the minority of the Liberal Party divided, with some retiring from politics immediately and others (led by former Liberal MP Michael Meadowcroft) creating a new 'Liberal Party' that claimed to be the continuation of the Liberal Party which had just dissolved itself. Michael Meadowcroft eventually joined the Liberal Democrats in 2007 but some of his former followers continue still as the Liberal Party, most notably in a couple of electoral wards of the cities of Liverpool and Peterborough.[25]

The Lib Dems did not reach the share of national votes in the 1990s that the Alliance had achieved in the 1980s. At their first election in 1992 (which ended in a fourth successive Conservative win), they won 17.8% of the vote and twenty seats.[28]

Following the election of Tony Blair as Labour leader in July 1994 after the death of his predecessor John Smith, Ashdown pursued co-operation between the two parties because he wanted to form a coalition government should the next general election end without any party having an overall majority.[30] This Lib-Lab pact failed to form because Labour's massive majority after the 1997 general election made it an irrelevance for Labour, and because Labour were not prepared to consider the introduction of proportional representation and other Lib Dem conditions.[30] The election was, however, something of a turning point for the Liberal Democrats. They took a smaller share of the vote than at the previous election, but they managed to more than double their representation in parliament,[31] winning 46 seats,[28] through tactical voting and concentrating resources in winnable seats.[32]

Under Kennedy's leadership the majority of Pro-Euro Conservatives, a group of former members of the Conservatives, joined the Liberal Democrats on 10 December 2001.[39]

At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP–Liberal Alliance (22%) and won 62 seats.[40] Many had anticipated that this election would be the Lib Dems' breakthrough at Westminster; party activists hoped to better the 25% support of the 1983 election, or to reach 100 MPs.[41] Much of the apparent lack of success resulted from the first-past-the-post electoral system: the party got 22% of the votes nationally but only 10% of the seats in the Commons.[40] Controversy became associated with the campaign when it became known that Michael Brown had donated £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrats. Brown, who lived in Majorca, Spain at the time, was charged in June 2008 with fraud and money laundering and subsequently jumped bail and fled the country.[42] In November 2008 he was convicted in his absence of thefts amounting to £36 million and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.[43]

The 2005 election figures revealed a trend of the Lib Dems replacing the Conservatives as Labour's main opponents in urban areas. Many gains came in previously Labour-held urban constituencies (for example, Manchester Withington, Cardiff Central, Birmingham Yardley), many of which the Conservatives had held in the 1980s, and Lib Dem aspirants had over 100 second-place finishes behind Labour candidates.[40] The British electoral system makes it hard for the Conservatives to form a government without winning some city seats outside its rural heartlands, such as the Lib Dem Bristol West constituency, where the Conservatives came third in 2005 after holding the seat until 1997.[44]

In a statement on 5 January 2006 Charles Kennedy admitted to a long battle with alcoholism and announced a leadership election in which he intended to stand for re-election, while Sir Menzies Campbell took over as acting leader.[45]

For several years rumours had alleged that Kennedy had problems with alcohol—the BBC's Nick Robinson called it "Westminster's worst-kept secret".[46] Kennedy had on previous occasions denied these rumours, and some suggested that he had deliberately misled the public and his party.[46]

Kennedy had planned to stand as a candidate, but he withdrew from the election citing a lack of support among Lib Dem MPs.[47] Sir Menzies Campbell subsequently won the contest, defeating Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes, among others, in a very controversial race. Mark Oaten withdrew from the contest because of revelations about visits to male prostitutes. Simon Hughes came under attack regarding his sexuality while Chris Huhne was accused live on Daily Politics of attempting to rig polls.[47]

Despite the negative press over Kennedy's departure, the leaderless party won the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election over Labour in February 2006. This result was viewed as a particular blow for Gordon Brown, who lives in the constituency, represented the adjacent seat and featured in Labour's campaign.[48] The party also came second place by 633 votes in the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, threatening the safe Conservative seat and pushing Labour into fourth place behind the UK Independence Party.[49] In July 2007, Sir Menzies announced that the party wished to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20 to 16p per pound—the lowest rate since 1916—and wanted to finance the cut using green taxes and other revenues, including making gains from UK properties owned by non-UK residents eligible for capital gains tax.[50]

On 18 December 2007 Nick Clegg won the leadership election, becoming the party's fourth leader. Clegg won the leadership with a majority of 511 votes (1.2%) over his opponent Chris Huhne, in a poll of party members.[54] Clegg was the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam until 2017, and was an MEP for the East Midlands from 1999 to 2004.[55]

In his acceptance speech, Clegg declared that he was "a liberal by temperament, by instinct and by upbringing" and that he believes "Britain [is] a place of tolerance and pluralism". He claimed that his priorities were defending civil liberties; devolving the running of public services to parents, pupils and patients; and protecting the environment,[56] and that he wanted to forge a "liberal alternative to the discredited policies of big government".[55] He also proposed a target to double the number of Lib Dem MPs within two elections, and before the 2008 local elections confirmed that he was pleased with their performance in the polls.[57]

Clegg became deputy prime minister to David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, in a 2010 coalition agreement that placed a centre-right government at the helm of the United Kingdom.[59][60] Political commentators identified Clegg's leadership as promoting a shift to the radical centre in the Liberal Democrats, bringing more emphasis to the economically liberal side of social liberalism.[61][62]

After the first of three general election debates on 15 April 2010, a ComRes poll put the Liberal Democrats on 24%.[63] On 20 April, a YouGov poll put the Liberal Democrats on 34%, the Conservatives on 33% and Labour on 28%.[64]

In the general election held on 6 May 2010, the Liberal Democrats won 23% of the vote and 57 seats in the House of Commons. The election returned a hung parliament with no party having an absolute majority. Negotiations between the Lib Dems and the two main parties occurred in the following days. David Cameron became Prime Minister on 11 May after Gordon Brown's resignation and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party, with Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister and other Liberal Democrats in the cabinet.[20] Three quarters of the Liberal Democrat's manifesto pledges went into the Programme for Government.[65] Of the 57 Liberal Democrat MPs, only two refused to support the Conservative Coalition agreement, with former leader Charles Kennedy and Manchester Withington MP John Leech both rebelling.[66]

After joining the coalition poll ratings for the party fell,[67] particularly following the government's support for raising the cap on tuition fees with Liberal Democrat MPs voting 27 for, 21 against and 8 abstaining.[68] Shortly after the 2015 General Election, Liberal Democrat leadership contender Norman Lamb conceded that Clegg’s broken pledge on university tuition had proven costly.[69]

On 8 December 2010, the eve of a vote on the raising of the cap on tuition fees in the United Kingdom to £9,000, an opinion poll conducted by YouGov recorded voting intention figures of Conservatives 41%, Labour 41%, Other Parties 11% and Liberal Democrats 8%.[70] the lowest level of support recorded for the Liberal Democrats in any opinion poll since September 1990.[71] In the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, 2011 held on 13 January 2011, the Liberal Democrats gained 31.9% of the vote, a 0.3% increase despite losing to Labour. In a by-election in the South Yorkshire constituency of Barnsley in March 2011, the Liberal Democrats fell from second place at the general election to sixth, with the candidate Dominic Carman, losing his deposit.[72]

In council elections held on 5 May 2011, the Liberal Democrats suffered heavy defeats in the Midlands, North and Scotland. They also lost heavily in the Welsh assembly and Scottish Parliament, where several candidates lost their deposits.[73] According to The Guardian, "they lost control of Sheffield council – the city of Clegg's constituency – were ousted from Liverpool, Hull and Stockport, and lost every Manchester seat they stood in. Overall, they got their lowest share of the vote in three decades".

Clegg admitted that the party had taken "big knocks" due to a perception that the coalition government had returned to the Thatcherism of the 1980s.[74]

As part of the deal that formed the coalition, it was agreed to hold a referendum on the Alternative Vote, in which the Conservatives would campaign for First Past the Post and the Liberal Democrats for Alternative Vote. The referendum, held on 5 May 2011, resulted in First Past the Post being chosen over Alternative Vote by approximately two-thirds of voters.[75]ƒpop

In May 2011, Clegg revealed plans to make the House of Lords a mainly elected chamber, limiting the number of peers to 300, 80% of whom would be elected with a third of that 80% being elected every 5 years by single transferable vote.[76] In August 2012, Clegg announced that attempts to reform the House of Lords would be abandoned due to opposition for the proposals by backbench Conservative MPs. Claiming the coalition agreement had been broken, Clegg stated that Liberal Democrat MPs would no longer support changes to the House of Commons boundaries for the 2015 general election.[77]

In council elections held on 3 May 2012, the Lib Dems lost more than three hundred councillors, leaving them with fewer than three thousand for the first time in the party's history.[79] In June 2012 it was reported that membership of the party had fallen by around 20% along with falling poll numbers since joining the coalition.[80] On 20 September 2012 Clegg personally apologised for breaking his pledge not to raise university tuition fees.[81]

On 28 February 2013, the party won a by-election in Eastleigh, the Hampshire constituency that had previously been held by the former minister, Chris Huhne. The party's candidate, Mike Thornton, had been a local councillor for the party, and held the seat.[82] In eighteen other by-elections held throughout the 2010–15 Parliament, the party lost its deposit in 11;[83] in the Rochester and Strood by-election held on 20 November 2014, it came fifth polling 349 votes or 0.9% of the total votes cast. This was both the worst result in the history of the party, and of any governing party.[84]

Despite Clegg's efforts at triangulation,[87][88] the Liberal Democrats experienced its worst-ever showing in the 2015 general election, losing 48 seats in the House of Commons, leaving them with only eight MPs.[89][90] Prominent Liberal Democrat MPs who lost their seats included former leader Charles Kennedy, former deputy leaders Vince Cable and Simon Hughes, and several cabinet ministers. The party held onto just eight constituencies in Great Britain, with only one in Scotland, one in Wales and six in England.[91] The Liberal Democrats' erstwhile coalition partner, Cameron's Conservatives, won an outright majority, negating the need for them to accommodate the smaller party in government.[92] On 8 May 2015, Clegg announced his resignation as party leader.[93]

On 1 December 2016, the Liberal Democrats won its first by-election gain in ten years when Sarah Olney won a seat in Richmond Park previously held by the Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith, who had resigned and was contesting the election as an Independent. The main theme of the party's campaign was opposition to the manner of the government opting for a hard Brexit in leaving the European Union.

In the 2017 snap general election, the Liberal Democrats had an overall vote share of 7.4%, down 0.5% from 2015. Nevertheless, the party gained a net of four seats from the last election, taking their seat total to twelve. The party recaptured several of its former strongholds: Sir Vince Cable was elected in Twickenham, with a majority of 9,762 votes and a swing of 14.7%. Despite making some gains compared to the previous general election, former party leader Nick Clegg lost Sheffield Hallam to Jared O'Mara of the Labour Party, and Zac Goldsmith of the Conservatives regained Richmond Park from Sarah Olney with a very narrow majority of 45 votes.[23] Party membership exceeded 100,000 during the campaign. On 14 June, following the election, Farron announced his intention to stand down as leader of the Liberal Democrats.[98]

Opening line from the preamble to the constitution of the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.[99]

Within the Liberal Democrats, the two main ideological strands are social liberals and classical liberals, the latter supporting economic liberalism.[6][7][105] The principal difference between the two is that the classical liberals tend to support greater choice and competition and aim to increase social mobility through economic deregulation and creation of opportunity, whereas the social liberals are more commonly associated with directly aiming to increase equality of outcome through state intervention.[6] Classical liberals tend to favour cutting taxes for the poorest in order to increase opportunity, contrasting with social liberals who would rather see higher spending on public services and the disadvantaged in order to reduce income inequality.[106]

Pupil premium of £2.5bn given to head teachers, aimed at disadvantaged children, which could allow average primary school to cut class size to 20 pupils. — £488 per child on free school meals, is given to schools on top of their main funding. Total pupil premium funding for 2011–12 is £625m and was due to rise to £2.5bn a year by 2014–15.[118]

Workplace scheme for 800,000 pupils to give them the opportunity to gain skills and experience. — £1bn of new funding will provide opportunities including job subsidies, apprenticeships and work experience placements for 500,000 unemployed people. The government will subsidise 160,000 work places by providing £2,275 to any private sector business willing to hire an unemployed person aged 18 to 24 years old.[119]

The party wants to phase out religious discrimination in faith school admissions and employment within six years. It also supports the repeal of compulsory collective worship in schools.[120]

They have called for the repeal of the Greenwich Judgement, which prevents Local Authorities from prioritising their own residents in school admissions policies.[121][122]

They have been credited with the introduction of the 50% Rule which requires new faith academies to allocate at least half of their places without reference to faith when oversubscribed.

Cut size of the Department of Health by half, abolishing or cutting budgets of quangos, scrapping Strategic Health Authorities and seeking to limit pay of top NHS managers to below level of prime minister. Three quarters of health quangos have already been axed, and plans have been announced to scrap Strategic Health Authorities.[123][124]

Scrap Labour's personal care at home and divert cash to give one week's respite for one million carers. — Over £400million available in additional funding over coalition period to the hundreds of thousands of carers who work over 50 hours a week.[125]

1p income tax rise on all income tax bands to fund the NHS an extra £6 billion a year.[126]

Bill announced which will regulate CCTV, end the collection of DNA from innocent citizens, scrap ID cards and the children's contact database, end control orders, reduce the maximum pre-charge detention period under that Act from 28 to 14 days, outlaw wheel-clamping on private land, enable those with convictions for consensual sexual relations between men aged 16 or over (which have since been decriminalised) to apply to have them disregarded, and an amnesty with British citizenship for all illegal immigrants.[127]

Scrap Police and Crime Commissioners and replace them with Police Boards made up of local councilors in order to save money.[128]

Introduce a legal, regulated market for cannabis. Allow single purpose, licensed stores to sell cannabis to those aged 18 years old and above, with a new regulator to oversee the market. Also allow 'home-cultivation for personal use and small scale licensed cannabis social clubs'.[129]

Introduce specialist drugs courts and non-criminal punishments to focus on the rehabilitation of those with addictions.[130]

Give victims of crime a right to review what progress police have made to investigate the crime committed against them including cases where the police have declined to investigate.[131]

Strengthen the ‘realistic prospect of custody’ test to reduce the use of remand for suspected offenders who can be safely monitored in the community and are unlikely to receive a prison sentence if found guilty.[130]

At a Lib Dem conference in 2015, considered an early test of the leadership of Tim Farron, Lib Dem activists voted against a "scrap Trident" motion. Following the conference, a spokesperson for the Lib Dems said: "There has been much discussion about how quickly, safely and efficiently Britain can reduce its nuclear capability. The party will now look into the options for the future of Britain's nuclear deterrent. Tim Farron believes Britain should be stepping down the nuclear ladder and doing so in conjunction with our NATO allies around the world."[132]

The Liberal Democrats have been strongly in favour of European integration. The party maintains a "strong and positive" commitment to the European Union;[135][136] the Liberal Democrats and its predecessors (the SDP–Liberal Alliance) have been consistently in favour of British EU membership, with the Liberal Party originally proposing membership into the predecessor European Coal and Steel Community.[137] However, the Liberal Democrats oppose the European federalism espoused by their counterparts.[138]

In June 2016 following the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, in which 51.9% of those voting voted in favour of leaving the European Union, Tim Farron stated that if Liberal Democrats were to be elected in the next parliamentary election, they would not follow through with triggering Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union and leaving the EU ("Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements") but would instead keep UK part of the EU.[139] Following this promise, the Liberal Democrats claim that their membership has increased by 10,000 since the referendum; at one point, the growth in the party was the equivalent of one person joining per minute.[140] Campaigning for a second referendum regarding the exact goals of Brexit negotiation is currently one of the party's flagship policies.[141]

Encourage the uptake of water metering, including introducing metering in all defined water-stressed areas by 2025, coupled with the development of national social tariffs to protect low income households.[130]

Complete the coastal path, introduce a fuller Right to Roam and a new designation of National Nature Parks to protect up to a million acres of accessible green space valued by local communities.[130]

In the 1992 General Election the Lib Dems succeeded the SDP–Liberal Alliance as the third most popular party, behind Labour and the Conservatives. Their popularity never rose to the levels attained by the Alliance, but in later years their seat count rose far above the Alliance's peak, a feat that has been credited to more intelligent targeting of vulnerable seats.[32] The vote percentage for the Alliance in 1987 and the Lib Dems in 2005 is similar, yet the Lib Dems won 62 seats to the Alliance's 22.[40]

The first-past-the-post electoral system used in UK General Elections is not suited to parties whose vote is evenly divided across the country, resulting in those parties achieving a lower proportion of seats in the Commons than their proportion of the popular vote (see table and graph). The Lib Dems and their Liberal and SDP predecessors have suffered especially,[144] particularly in the 1980s when their electoral support was greatest while the disparity between the votes and the number of MPs returned to parliament was significantly large. The increase in their number of seats in 1997, 2001 and 2005 was attributed to the weakness of the Conservatives and the success of their election strategist Chris Rennard.[32] Lib Dems state that they want 'three-party politics' in the Commons;[145][146] the most realistic chance of power with first past the post is for the party to be the kingmakers in a hung parliament.[147] Party leaders often set out their terms for forming a coalition in such an event—Nick Clegg stated in 2008 that the policy for the 2010 General Election was to reform elections, parties and Parliament in a "constitutional convention".[148]

The party had control of 31 councils in 2008, having held 29 councils prior to the 2008 election.[149] In the 2008 local elections they gained 25% of the vote, placing them ahead of Labour and increasing their control by 34 to more than 4,200 council seats—21% of the total number of seats. In council elections held in May 2011, the Liberal Democrats suffered heavy defeats in the Midlands, North and Scotland. They also lost heavily in the Welsh assembly and Scottish Parliament.[73] In local elections held in May 2012, the Lib Dems lost more than 300 councillors, leaving them with fewer than 3000 for the first time in the party's history.[79] In the 2013 local elections, they lost more councillors. In the 2014 local elections they lost over 300 councillors and the control of two local governments.[150]

In the 2016 local elections, the number of Liberal Democrat councillors increased for the first time since they went into coalition in 2010. The party won 43 seats and increased its vote share by 4%. A number of former MPs who lost their seats in 2015 won council seats in 2016 including former Manchester Withington MP John Leech[151] who won 53% of the vote in a traditionally Labour safe seat. Leech's win was hailed as 'historic' signifying the first gain for any party in Manchester other than Labour for the first time in six years and provided the city with its first opposition for two years.[151] Cheadle's former MP Mark Hunter also won a seat on Stockport Council.[152]

The party has generally not performed as well in elections to the European Parliament. In the 2004 local elections their share of the vote was 29% (placing them second, ahead of Labour)[146] and 14.9% in the simultaneous European Parliament elections (putting them in fourth place behind the UK Independence Party).[153] The results of the 2009 European elections were similar with the party achieving a vote of 28% in the county council elections yet achieving only 13.7% in the Europeans despite the elections taking place on the same day. The 2009 elections did however see the party gain one seat from UKIP in the East Midlands region taking the number of representatives in the parliament up to 11.[154] In 2014 the party lost ten seats, leaving them with one MEP.[155]

The first elections for the Scottish parliament were held in 1999 and resulted in the Liberal Democrats forming a coalition government with Labour from its establishment until 2007.[160] The Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace became Deputy First Minister, a role he continued until his retirement as party leader in 2005. The new leader of the party, Nicol Stephen, then took on the role of Deputy First Minister until the election of 2007.[161]

For the first three Scottish Parliament elections, the Lib Dems maintained a consistent number of MSPs. From the 17 elected in 1999, they retained this number in 2003 and went down one to 16 in 2007.[162] However, this fell to only five seats after the 2011 election as a result of the widespread unpopularity of their coalition with the Conservative party at the UK level.

The first elections to the newly created National Assembly for Wales were in 1999; the Liberal Democrats took six seats in the inaugural Assembly; Welsh Labour won a plurality of seats, but without an overall majority. In October 2000, following a series of close votes, the parties formed a coalition, with the Liberal Democrat leader in the assembly, Michael German, becoming the Deputy First Minister.[164] The deal lasted until the 2003 election, when Labour won enough seats to be able to govern outright.[165]

The party had polled consistently in the first four elections to the National Assembly, returning six representatives in the first three elections and five in the 2011 Election, thereby establishing itself as the fourth party in Wales behind Labour, the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru, but fell to just one seat in 2016. Between 2008 and 2016, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats was Kirsty Williams, the assembly member for Brecon & Radnorshire, the Assembly's first female party leader.[166]

The Liberal Democrats are a federal party of the parties of England, Scotland and Wales. The English and Scottish parties are further split into regions. The parliamentary parties of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly form semi-autonomous units within the party. The leaders in the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament are the leaders of the federal party and the Scottish Party; the leaders in the other two chambers, and the officers of all parliamentary parties, are elected from their own number. Co-ordination of all party activities across all federated groups is undertaken through the Federal Board. Chaired by the party leader, its 30+ members includes representatives from each of the groups and democratically elected representatives.[167]

The Lib Dems had 65,038 members at the end of 2010[168] and in the first quarter of 2008, the party received £1.1 million in donations and have total borrowings and unused credit facilities of £1.1 million (the "total debt" figure reported by the Electoral Commission includes, for example, unused overdraft facilities). This compares to Labour's £3.1 million in donations and £17.8 million of borrowing/credit facilities, and the Conservatives' £5.7 million in donations and £12.1 million of borrowing/credit facilities.[169]

Specified Associated Organisations (SAOs) review and input policies, representing groups including: ethnic minorities (EMLD),[170] women (WLD),[171] the LGBT community (LGBT+ Liberal Democrats),[172] youth and students (Young Liberals), engineers and scientists (ALDES),[173] parliamentary candidates (PCA)[174] and local councillors (ALDC).[175] Others can become Associated Organisations (AOs) as pressure groups in the party, such as the Green Liberal Democrats (GLD),[176]Liberal Reform,[177] Liberal Democrats Online,[178] the Liberal Democrat European Group (LDEG)[179] and the Liberal Democrat Disability Association.[180] The National Union of Liberal Clubs (NULC) represents Liberal Social Clubs which encourages recreational institutions where the promotion of the party can take place.[citation needed]

Membership fluctuated between 1988 and 2000 between a low of 69,000 in 2000 and a peak of 101,768 in 1994.[187] Membership increased sharply after the confirmation on 18 April 2017 of the 8 June 2017 general election, again surpassing 100,000 on 24 April 2017.[188]

Their biannual conference is the Liberal Democrats supreme decision making body. It votes on policy proposals and constitutional amendments. The event also features speeches from prominent party members and guests, an exhibition, and a number of fringe events.